Beck to Obama: Come clean on bombing, or else

Drew Zahn is a WND news editor who cut his journalist teeth as a member of the award-winning staff of Leadership, Christianity Today’s professional journal for church leaders. A former pastor, he is the editor of seven books, including Movie-Based Illustrations for Preaching & Teaching, which sparked his ongoing love affair with film and his weekly WND column, “Popcorn and a (world)view.”

TV and radio host Glenn Beck has warned the Obama administration it has until Monday, April 22, to come clean about the Boston Marathon bombing, or he promises to “expose” what’s being hidden from the American public.

“I thought I had heard and seen it all. I thought I didn’t trust my government,” Beck lamented. “Oh, no. No, no. There is no depth that these people will not stoop to. They have until Monday, and then the Blaze will expose it.”

What is Beck threatening to expose? Apparently it has something to do with Abdul Rahman Ali Alharbi, a Saudi national initially questioned by police following the bombing, but since released.

“Let me just say this to those at the highest echelons of government,” Beck intoned. “We know who this Saudi national is. And it is in your best interest and the best interest of integrity and trust for the people of United States of America – it’s best coming from you, not coming from a news organization. It’s best coming from you. You have until Monday. We have information on who this man is. … We know he is a very bad, bad, bad man.”

Beck claimed to have information leaked to him by “patriots” in several offices and agencies, confirming the government knows more about Alharbi that has been reported and is, contrary to media reports, to be deported for “national security” reasons.

“Documents were brought to our attention at The Blaze, and those documents indicate that this guy is scheduled for deportation next Tuesday due to issues related to national security,” Beck said. “The document goes on to say that the individual is linked to the Boston bombing. That’s what the federal document says.

“This is the same person that we were initially told was a person of interest,” Beck continued. “This was the Saudi national in the hospital. His apartment was in Revere, Mass. It was raided. The items were removed. And then we were told he was just a possible witness. And then we were finally told by the authorities he had nothing to do with the attack, in fact, he wasn’t a witness to the crime. … Yet the documents say he’s being deported voluntarily on terror charges linked to the Boston bombing.”

Beck insisted his information came from “several – I can’t count them on both hands – several sources, who are brave, valiant, patriotic Americans that work in all departments at all levels of this administration, who have contacted The Blaze one way or another and said, ‘Help, help, help.’ There are several dedicated Americans in the law enforcement community [who] decided they could not stand idly by and let the truth be swept under the rug.”

The full video of Beck’s comments, including his insistence that this story “will determine the fate of our nation,” can be seen below:

Since Alharbi’s name was made public, there has been a flurry of confusing reports about both his background and his immigration status. Alharbi is now widely reported to be merely a person injured in the bombing and questioned routinely by the police, while another Saudi, identified as Noura Al-Ajaji, was similarly reported to have been merely an injured bystander. The Saudi embassy in Washington has said Alharbi is no longer under detention and is not a suspect in the bomb blasts.

Forbes, furthermore, has reported there is a Saudi national who was taken into custody by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement last week and is being held for deportation due to his being in the country on an expired visa. However, Homeland Security has said that the individual being held for deportation has nothing whatsoever to do with the Saudi “person of interest” widely reported in the hours following the attack.

Yet WND reported that Steve Emerson of the Investigative Project on Terrorism told Fox News host Sean Hannity that Alharbi was the original “person of interest” in connection with the bombing and is going to be deported.

Reuters further reported President Obama met with Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Saud al-Faisal last week, noting “the meeting was not on Obama’s public schedule.”

After that meeting was mentioned, Emerson told Hannity, “That’s very interesting because this is the way things are done with Saudi Arabia. You don’t arrest their citizens. You deport them, because they don’t want them to be embarrassed, and that’s the way we appease them.”

WND also reported a Saudi Arabian newspaper claiming First Lady Michelle Obama visited Alharbi while in the hospital.

Beck insists despite reports to the contrary spread across the mainstream media, he has the real scoop on Alharbi.

“After a number of those media outlets discredited us or tried to with the ICE disclaimer, we received another call from yet another patriotic citizen in our government, this one from a high-ranking congressional aide who told us that the deportation order that we had just reported on had just been requested and delivered to his boss,” Beck said. “He requested anonymity to protect those who had secretly provided the report, but proceeded to read to us the eight-page document, which confirmed every single detail we reported.”

Of the mysterious “Saudi national,” frequently identified as Alharbi, Beck pondered, “Who is he, I wonder? Why would anyone linked to the bombings be deported? If he’s involved, wouldn’t he be prosecuted? If he’s a witness, why wouldn’t you want him to testify? Why would you allow someone who was standing there by the bomb to be deported? Why would he leave? And why hasn’t anybody in the mainstream media taken an interest in finding out? Why are they silent?

“The Blaze is interested,” Beck said. “And The Blaze will not sit down. We will not comply. We will not shut up. We will not be intimidated. We work hard into looking who he is, who he’s connected to and why he seems to be offered a ticket to freedom even though he’s been identified as a threat to national security. Don’t believe me? Don’t believe me. Six congressmen have verified.”